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GOODYEARS-EQUIPPED CARS LEAD TIRE INDUSTRY IN NHRA RACE AT NORWALK
Jun 30th
NORWALK, Ohio (June 28, 2010) – They spent four days battling difficult conditions and dodging rainstorms but, when it was over, eight cars racing on Goodyear tires won their categories at the NHRA’s Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park.
Goodyear was the winningest tiremaker at the event.
Ohio’s summer weather, which was sunny, hot, muggy and sometimes rainy, gave crew chiefs difficult decisions to make in short time frames. Through it all, Larry Dixon (in Top Fuel), Tim Wilkerson (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock), Bill Reichert (Top Alcohol Dragster), Pat Musi (Pro Mod) and Mike Walter (Super Stock), Al Akerman (Competition Eliminator) and Ben Wenzel (Stock Eliminator) kept finding grip through their Goodyear Eagles and winning rounds.
In addition, Anderson won the K & N Horsepower Challenge for Pro Stock cars. By winning the $50,000 special race and Sunday’s Pro Stock final, Anderson earned a $25,000 bonus.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had weekends like this,” said Anderson, a three-time Pro Stock champ. “I guess I’ve got to go back three, four years since I had a car that could do these things.”
Anderson beat runaway Pro Stock points leader Mike Edwards in the final round of the Horsepower Challenge, winning the special event for the third time. Anderson defeated Allen Johnson in Sunday’s Pro Stock final. As a result, Anderson sits fourth in Pro Stock points, behind Edwards, Johnson and Jeg Coughlin.
Dixon’s victory, his seventh this season, came at the expense of Antron Brown in the final round. Dixon leads the Top Fuel standings with 1,256 points, Tony Schumacher is next with 1,080 and Cory McClenathan, who clinched a spot in the NHRA Countdown to One playoff format, is third with 1,030.
Wilkerson beat John Force in the Funny Car final but Force still leads the category standings with 1,024 points. Robert Hight is second with 951.
Musi’s Pro Mod victory was his first and it came in his first final round appearance since he lost to Lee Shepherd in the final round of Pro Stock in the 1981 Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.
Bill Reichert, the four-time defending TAD champion, won for the fourth time at Norwalk.
Walter’s win was his second at Norwalk. His previous victory came at the track in 2007. Wenzel won for the first time since 1967.
PAT MUSI GRABS FIRST NHRA NATIONAL WIN IN PRO MOD AT NORWALK
NORWALK, Ohio (June 28, 2010) – When Pat Musi crossed the finish line and won the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series final during the NHRA’s Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park, he wasn’t entirely sure what to think.
“I couldn’t even say anything, I was just speechless,” said Musi. “It was good.”
Musi’s victory in the Pro Mod category at Norwalk was his first in NHRA national event competition and it came in his first appearance in a final round since he lost to Lee Shepherd during the 1981 Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.
The common thread between 1981 and his Norwalk win: Goodyear tires. Musi races on Goodyear Eagle D1230 tires and was racing on Goodyear tires in 1981. He said the size of his Goodyear Eagle D1230 tire was important to his success at Norwalk.
“We’re able to stay on the tire,” Musi said. “We don’t have the variable of carburetors. We do the same thing every time, it will accelerate faster and we can keep it up on that big tire.”
SPORTSMAN WINNERS LEAD GOODYEAR’S EIGHT NORWALK WINNERS
NORWALK, Ohio (June 28, 2010) – Nobody beats Ben Wenzel and his 1967 Chevrolet Camaro for 43 straight years.
Wenzel, driving the same car he raced to victory in the 1967 US Nationals at Indianapolis, won for the first time since that race when he won the Stock Eliminator category at the NHRA’s Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park.
Wenzel was among eight drivers who raced to victory on Goodyear Eagles at Norwalk.
Goodyear’s other winners at Norwalk included Larry Dixon (in Top Fuel), Tim Wilkerson (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock), Mike Walter (Super Stock), Bill Reichert (Top Alcohol Dragster), Al Ackerman (Competition Eliminator) and Pat Musi (Pro Mod).
Dixon, Wilkerson and Anderson won in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series professional categories and Musi’s win came in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series. Walter, Reichert, Ackerman and Wenzel all won in Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series competition.
Wenzel, 67, is “retired.” He beat Stock Eliminator standouts Pete Biondo and David Rampy in his final two rounds at Norwalk.
Reichert won for the third time at Norwalk. Musi’s win was his first in national event competition and it came in his first final round appearance since 1981. Musi was not driving the same car he raced in 1981. Walter’s win was his second national victory at Norwalk. Ackerman’s victory was his second national
More information about Goodyear Racing is available at www.racegoodyear.com. More information about the NHRA is available at www.nhra.com.
GOODYEAR’S 11 WINS AT ROUTE 66 NATIONALS LEAD TIRE INDUSTRY
Jun 8th
JOLIET, Ill. (June 7, 2010) – No racecar can win without tires and, at the NHRA United Association Route 66 Nationals, very few cars won without Goodyear tires.
The simple math: Goodyear beat all participating tiremakers with six regular event category wins and was the winningest tiremaker in the Jegs All Stars special event for sportsman racers with five wins in 10 categories. Goodyear’s 11 total wins bested the totals of all other tiremakers combined, 10.
The Goodyear-equipped winners in the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series for sportsman racers included Monroe Guest, who won his first national event victory in Top Alcohol Dragster; Don Higgins, who also won his first national title in Super Comp, and Peter Biondo, whose victory in Stock Eliminator was his 38th win in national event competition.
Goodyear’s Jegs All Stars champions included Jim Whiteley (Top Alcohol Dragster), Bruno Massel (Competition Eliminator), Keith Raftery (Top Sportsman), Ray Miller (Top Dragster) and Steve Domingues (Super Street). No other tiremaker had more than three All Stars wins.
Guest beat Jared Dreher, who also raced on Goodyear tires, in the TAD final. Racing on Goodyear’s D2540 drive tire, Guest won the final with a 5.482-second, 260.26 mph pass down the quarter mile. The TAD cars are purpose-built racing dragsters.
The four-day event was hampered by constant rain, leaving the grounds soggy and changing the track conditions all weekend long.
“My tires were never an issue,” Guest said. “They worked every time. It was a question of what the track would take.”
Higgins drove another purpose-built racing dragster and won with a quarter-mile pass clocked at 8.920 seconds and 160.75 mph. His car was equipped with a pair of Goodyear D2532 drive tires on the back.
Higgins said, “The 60-foot times were beautiful. This is the first year I’ve tried the Goodyears. They’re great.”
Biondo, the wily veteran, drove a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro with a set of Goodyear D6303 tires on the back. His time in the final round was 10.482 seconds and he went through the speed traps at 120.35 mph.
More information about Goodyear Racing, including a downloadable race tire guide, is available at www.racegoodyear.com.